Most entrepreneurs in the Middle East (and indeed the world over) would agree that managing operations and funds is as important as all of the effort put in for sealing a fundraising round. It is in recognition of this scenario that the Mohammed Bin Rashid Fund (MBRF), a fund established by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai to finance the UAE's youth and small and medium enterprise (SME) projects, has now set up a post-fund monitoring service for its portfolio companies.

Appointing Metis Management Consultancy to carry out this special service, Dubai SME (the agency looking after Dubai’s SME and entrepreneurship initiatives) said in a statement that the partnership would provide support to SMEs "whenever they need to ask questions, bounce new ideas, or even re-plan or budget their forecasts.” MBRF currently provides three loan schemes to SMEs (credit bank, seed capital loan and invoice/LPO finance), and Metis will now be responsible for representing MBRF with all the SMEs they fund by handling the post-fund monitoring operations.

Representatives of MBRF and Metis at the signing.Image credit: MBRF.

Speaking about the partnership, Nayef Shahin, founder and Managing Partner, Metis Management Consultancy notes that, under this agreement, Metis will now arrange for routine meetings with the companies funded by MBRF. “Some meetings will be bi-monthly while [some] quarterly depending on the category assigned by MBRF to the company,” he says. “During these meetings, Metis will go through the overall strategy, marketing plan and operating model as well as the review the financial performance against the business plan.” Metis will then, in turn, submit its report to MBRF detailing the performance of the company against certain pre-designed and agreed KPIs, and additionally, will also be responsible for flagging off any potential risks that the companies could face.

“By this arrangement, Metis will be working closely with the SMEs/entrepreneurs and will be able to provide advice and support where needed," Shahin says. "We believe in the potential for growth of these companies, however, entrepreneurs or SME’s sometimes lack the tools and the skills necessary to make informed decisions. Big corporations can afford to hire a full-fledged finance team, strategy team and marketing teams but SMEs can’t do that. We hope, through our highly experienced team at Metis, to bridge the gap, and enable those companies to achieve, and better yet, surpass their targets."